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The Trump administration is throwing its support behind new Republican-led efforts to strengthen crime laws in the nation’s capital and expand authority for local police, according to a White House policy statement, The Daily Wire reported this week.
In a statement from the Office of Management and Budget, the administration endorsed two House GOP bills that would require mandatory detention for certain violent offenses and roll back what Republicans describe as restrictive rules placed on D.C. police officers. The House Oversight Committee advanced both measures on Monday.
“Together, these bills would hold criminals accountable and empower law enforcement officers,” the statement said. “Their reforms would help make America’s Federal city more safe, free, and beautiful and critically advance the President’s broader law and order agenda.”
The White House said it supports the District of Columbia Cash Bail Reform Act of 2025 (HR 5214), sponsored by Rep. Elise Stefanik of New York, and the CLEAN DC Act of 2025 (HR 5107), sponsored by Rep. Andrew Clyde of Georgia.
Stefanik’s bill would “require mandatory pretrial detention for defendants charged with certain enumerated public safety and order crimes,” the statement noted. It criticized efforts to eliminate cash bail, arguing that such policies have contributed to repeat offenses in major cities. “Washington, D.C. is a prime example and this bill will make the streets of our Federal city safer,” the statement said.
Clyde’s bill would “reverse unnecessary and detrimental restrictions placed on officers of the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department,” the policy document said. Those restrictions include removing officers and police union representatives from the Police Complaints Board, requiring juries to weigh whether officers consulted mental or behavioral health experts before using deadly force, and imposing new approval requirements for riot gear and less lethal projectiles.
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser and Attorney General Brian Schwalb oppose the legislation, calling the bills an “affront” to the “principles of democracy and local self-governance on which this country was founded.”
The Trump administration has recently increased its federal law enforcement presence in Washington, deploying additional personnel to address spikes in murder, homelessness, and carjackings. As part of that effort, the president has also sent hundreds of National Guard troops to patrol high-crime neighborhoods.
